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Do check the cables - as has been said
Download Goddisk - boot disk with many many CD drivers (but I'm too lazy to look it up - google it, if you can't find it PM me and I'll stop being lazy)
Check the power connection for the the CD in the box - if it does light up on boot up, then stick a CD in and boot with a boot disk. Go to the D: drive (or whatever letter the CD drive is) and just do a DIR. If it reads it, then load all the drivers on Goddisk and you should be ok.
If it doesn't read it, you gotta check the hardware. Get an airduster, open it and clean inside. Then start again...

He has already said that he can open the drive (therfore he has power) but it wont read any cd's, so he wont be able to load any driver, unless its is a really really old cd rom he wont need any driver!

When you extract the file, open a cmd window and put a disk in the floppy drive
After you do this type at the command line:
bfd cdrom

It will then start to write all the modules to the bootdisk, in order to make it bootable, and also to load a number of different drivers via MSCDEX in DOS at boot-time.
This bootdisk is VERY helpful, you can even create network bootdisks by typing in:
bfd msnet
Just a little two cents from me...this disk is the all purpose disk...I use it for just about anything windows or dos, its never failed me.

Even if you're just reading this thread, play around with this, the BFD.zip file is the automatic bootdisk creator, saves a lot of time from building a disk yourself. (We all get lazy sometimes)

This sounds like windoze having another funny turn, in my opinion. Make sure auto-insert notification isn't disabled. I've not used old versions of windows in a few years, but I think the setting will be in device manager, in the CD-ROM drives' properties.

First thing to do is check the status of your CD ROM in the Device Manager.

Click Start > Control Panel > System

In the Device Manager, verify that the CD Rom exists. If it does not exist, there is a BIOS or Hardware issue that needs to be resolved.

If the CD Rom does exist, right click it, and left click on Properties. There will be a box that tells you the status of the device. It should tell you "This Device is Working Properly" or "This Device is not Working Properly".

If it is not working properly, close the window, right click on the device, and delete it from the Device Manager. It should be auto-detected again when you reboot.

If it is working properly, you may just need to create a shortcut to it, in order for Windows to see it again in Windows Explorer. To do this, open Windows Explorer, click File > New > Shortcut. In the pop-up box, type D:\ and click OK. This will create a shortcut to your CD ROM. To re-create it in your directory tree, put a CD in the tray, and double click the shortcut. Close the window that opens, delete the shortcut icon, and you're ready to go.

On Bootup, open your BIOS Configuration Utility, change your controller settings to auto-detect. This will ensure the BIOS tells Windows there is indeed a drive there.

If none of the above works, open the case, pull the ribbon cable out of the CD ROM, and push it back in. Pull the ribbon cable out of the controller or mainboard, and push it back in. Take care to ensure the red stripe on the cable is on the same side as pin #1, and ensure everything is aligned properly. Do not force anything, as the pins are easily bent.

hi there,
you have received quite a valuable solution from all these guys. this problem is faced by us very often as we are in the hardware sales business. i could try to help u out with it first of all does it detect in the bios if it does then its working, 2nd have you received any floppy disk with the cdrom drive that u brought if yes go to control panel and select add remove hardware click "next" again click "next" when it ask "do u want windows to serch for new hardware" select "no" then click "next" in harware type select cdrom controller and click "next" then click have disk and give the path to your floopy drive and it will select the drivers and if this does not help or u dont have the floppy disk the one more suggestion if you have a dump copy of win98 in your harddisk reinstall it or not the u can use the suggestion given by anjali have a nice day man